Boeing is also developing the crewed Starliner. During the August 2021 launch window 13 propulsion system valves got stuck and Boeing had to return the spacecraft back to factory. They are hoping to try again by mid-October. However, if the fixes are not fast and very smooth missing mid-October will push the next launch attempt into 2022. This is the second test launch to certify man-rating. There will need to be a lot of verifications that Starliner is really perfectly fixed to certify it as man-rated. There were major software errors on the first flight and now defective hardware before the second flight.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) awarded $4.3 billion for Boeing and $2.5 billion for SpaceX. NASA agreed to pay Boeing nearly $300 million extra for Starliner.

If SLS slips into 2023 and Starliner does not get deemed safe enough to transport astronauts then Boeing could be the prime contractor for over $30 billion of failing space programs. The SLS program has already been running for 11 years.

In 2010, the Constellation program was cancelled. This was basically the same contractors working to reconfigure Space Shuttle parts into an Apollo rocket configuration. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, quickly dismissed a plan to spend $6 billion to fund commercial rocket developers to make an alternative to the Ares rocket.

"We cannot continue to coddle the dreams of rocket hobbyists and so-called 'commercial' providers who claim the future of U.S. human space flight can be achieved faster and cheaper than Constellation," Senator Shelby said in February 2010.